Marlo Hulnick Monday, March 6th, 2017
Humanities 7th Grade
How People Have Resisted the Oppression of Being Scapegoated
We live in a world where sometimes innocent people are oppressed because of things they didn’t do. In spite of this, they resisted. Although this is happening today with people defying Donald Trump, it goes back to the Salem Witch Trials as well. In 1662, people were falsely accused of witchcraft and some resisted this oppression. Later in history, people continued to refuse injustice. During the Red Scare, that occurred around the 1950’s, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy falsely accused people of being Communist and wanted others to join in on the scapegoating. Some people resisted this oppression by refusing to blame others. Throughout the history of the United States people have resisted the oppression of being scapegoated.
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, there are a lot of examples of racial oppression and how the people resisted it. In The Crucible, Parris’s slave, Tituba, is accused of being a witch because she was a different race than them. There was a lot of racial oppression in Salem and Tituba found herself at the center of it. She gets whipped for witchcraft before they have evidence. When Tituba is later asked about compacting with the devil she says, “And then he came one stormy night to me, and he say, ‘Look! I have white people belong to me.’ And I look- and there was Goody Good,” (Miller, page 64). Tituba was the first person accused of witchcraft. When Reverend Parris’s daughter couldn’t wake up, their slave, Tituba, was the first to be questioned. Slaves were easier to blame because they were subordinate.Tituba was being oppressed because the towns folk were accusing her of witchcraft without any evidence. To refocus the accusation of witchcraft off of her and other slaves, Tituba redirects it to a white woman. By resisting racial and oppression she is helping herself and all the other slaves too.
In The Crucible, the slave Tituba resisted the oppression of being scapegoated, and so did actors, writers, and directors during the Red Scare. In the 1950’s, during the second Red Scare in the United States, citizens had to come before the senate and answer the question, “Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist party?” The more famous or popular the person was, the more likely people would follow them if they were Communist. For that reason, the government was harder on Hollywood stars. “Actors, writers, and producers alike were summoned to appear before the committee and provide names of colleagues who may have been members of the Communist Party. Those who refused to address the committee were cited for contempt. Uncooperative artists were blacklisted from jobs in the entertainment industry. Years passed until many had their reputations restored.” -ushistory.org. In the 1950’s during the second Red Scare, anticommunism played a big role in the United States. Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House of Un-Americans Committee (HUAC) oppressed American’s. They would accuse people of being Communist while there was no proof. Because Hollywood stars had a big influence on people, they were blamed more often. Citizens who would refuse to give names of Communists were blacklisted which means you might lose your job, reputation, family, or friends. Some people resisted by not giving names, and some resisted through writing things like books, such as The Crucible by Arthur Miller. To this day, people have resisted the oppression of being scapegoated in other ways too.
Currently, people are resisting to the oppression of being scapegoated in different ways. Some people are protesting Trump’s ideas, some are protesting his executive orders, and some are using their power in the government to resist to his oppression of others being scapegoated. “A federal judge in New York blocked part of Trump’s executive order on immigration, ruling that authorities could not remove individuals from seven Muslim-majority countries who had arrived in US airports after the order had been issued. Other judges had ruled against the order, as well. Sixteen Democratic state attorneys general issued a joint statement calling Trump’s move “unconstitutional, un-American and unlawful.’ ” -CNN. Donald Trump issued an executive order on January 27th, 2017, stating that people from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen can not come into the United States. Trump calls it a travel ban, although it is a ban on seven majority Muslim countries. There have been protests, and also part of the executive order was blocked because it is unconstitutional. America is resisting this and will continue to resist. The government is resisting to his oppression, and everyday people are too.
Over and over again people have resisted the oppression of scapegoating. People have defied oppression based on race, religion, and gender equality. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the slave Tituba resisted the oppression of being racially scapegoated. In the 1950’s during the Red Scare, actors, writers, directors, and other Hollywood stars fought against being scapegoated as well. In current times, people are resisting to the oppression of being scapegoated. The Judicial Branch stopped one of Trump’s executive orders, and everyday people are protesting against him. Oppression is an awful thing that has gone on throughout history, and we need to try to find a way to stop it. The world can not be a perfect utopia but this is a step in the right direction.
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In humanities we were assigned to write an essay comparing three time periods with one a theme. The three time periods were: the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, the McCarthy Era around the 1950’s, and modern day. My theme was resisting the oppression of being scapegoated. I learned that by learning about modern day it helps you understand about history and vice versa. There were a few challenges. One of them was my theme. I started with the broad theme “resisting oppression” and as I focused it on one point it got complex. Choosing this theme was a risk that I took and I’m glad I took it. Learning and writing about all of this has inspired me to learn more about what’s going on in our government.
When I got my grades back I was satisfied. I had good arguments and paragraph form but my analysis could have been deeper and my quotes could have been stronger. I am proud of my writing and it has improved a lot throughout the year. I am planning on re-submitting my essay to and fix some writing convention mistakes.
